And finally tonight, a story that seems to jump right off the pages of a thriller. A heated fight in the rarified air on top of the tallest mountain in the world, mount everest. On one side, western climbers. On the other, reportedly 100 of their guides, known as sherpas. So what happened? Abc's jon donvan takes us up the big mountain. Reporter: For 60 years it's been a peak place for firsts. First men to reach the summit. First woman. First american. And now this weekend -- first big ugly brawl up there at roughly four and a half miles up in the sky. Italy's simore moro, swittzerland's ueli steck, and behind the camera, britain's jonathan griffith, were beaten up, they say, by a group of sherpas, the mountain earring masters from that area who specialize in giding climbers up and back again. Countless history-making times. The three europeans are all seasoned climbers and had been sending back videos like these but now says one of them, it's a miracle we're still alive. After what they say was a misunderstanding involving a sherpa who thought they had ignored his instructions not to stay away from some ropes he was laying. Then they say 100 sherpas attacked them. One tried to use a pocket knife to hit simone moro, but luckily he just hit his belt off his backpack, so nothing happened. S' side of the story has yet to be heard. So it's not clear what tensions inflamed the meluys found themselves in saturday. Bruised and cut, they're trying to decide whether to call off their climb on the mountain that's supposed to be dangerous, not the people you meet along

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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